California Democrats started a new legislative push Monday to change recall election rules in an effort to protect one of their own after a court put an earlier attempt to slow the recall process on hold. A measure introduced Monday would help state Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton, who is facing a recall attempt backed by Republicans over his support for a gas tax increase. If they succeed in replacing Newman with a Republican, Democrats would lose their supermajority that allows them to raise taxes without GOP votes.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, file)

Refusing to take “no” for an answer, Sacramento Democrats are trying again to change the rules for recall elections, just in time to help state Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, defend against one.

Assembly Bill 132 and Senate Bill 117, made public on Monday, would add months to the qualification period for the Newman recall election in Senate District 29. A similar law passed in June, Senate Bill 96, was recently put on hold by the 3rd District Court of Appeal after Justice Vance W. Raye said it violated the state’s single-subject rule for legislation.

But Democrats are brazenly using the power of their offices to protect Newman, who was narrowly elected in November in a district that had long been represented by Republicans. The loss of his seat would end the Democrats’ supermajority and their ability to pass tax increases and put constitutional amendments on the ballot without even one vote from Republican lawmakers.

Election officials in the three counties within the district say recall proponents have turned in more than 66,000 valid voter signatures, enough to trigger an election to recall Newman, who has been under fire for his April 6 vote to increase gas taxes and car registration fees.

SB96 and its replacement legislation would require the verification of each and every signature on a recall petition instead of a representative sample, which is the practice under current law. Other changes to the process would establish a 30-day time period for voters who sign recall petitions to withdraw their signatures, add a requirement for the Department of Finance to issue a cost estimate for the recall election, and tack on a month for the Joint Legislative Budget Committee to review and comment on the cost estimate.

Those delays would likely push the recall election close enough to the June 2018 primary to be consolidated with it, when higher turnout may be more favorable to Newman. Absent the changes, Secretary of State Alex Padilla has 10 days to certify the count, and Gov. Jerry Brown is required to schedule the recall election within 60 to 80 days.

The retroactive law is not the only effort made by Democrats to protect Newman. A public records request by the Sacramento Bee revealed that an attorney for the Senate Democratic Caucus had undisclosed private communications with Fair Political Practices Commission member Brian Hatch, a former union lobbyist recently appointed by Padilla.

Senate Democrats wanted the nonpartisan election watchdog agency to change a longstanding rule that said elected officials could not donate more than $4,400 to Newman’s campaign to fight the recall. They got what they wanted. Against the advice of the commission’s own attorneys, the FPPC voted to allow Newman’s colleagues to give unlimited amounts of money to the committee he controls, effective immediately.

FPPC Chair Jodi Remke, who alone voted to retain the contribution limit, warned that the vote could be seen as political and could damage the agency’s reputation.

“I believe this is the wrong time and wrong venue for us to reverse a longstanding commission interpretation of a statute,” she said.

But the supermajority party controls the budget of every agency and all the important political appointments in the state. It has the ability to raise virtually unlimited amounts of money from businesses that operate in California’s highly regulated environment. It can change the law at will and pressure regulators to issue favorable rulings.

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